The poem was written in modern speech but now the language is considered as old-fashioned. An example of old language is “Thy Beauty”, is in the days it was wrote would have meant your beauty. Also most of the poem is wrote in rhyming couplets, this gives the poem a general rhythm, for example lines one and two end in ‘time’ and ‘crime’.
There is an example of a metaphor, which fits well with the poem because the whole poem is one big exaggerated poem, so metaphors fit very well because metaphor simply exaggerate things, one metaphor in this poem is on lines 11 & 12. “My vegetable love should grow, faster than empires”, one is you can’t have love or teach love so there is no such thing as “vegetable love”, also a vegetable could not be bigger than an empire. Empires are vast area’s where countries have taken over other countries.
Smaller form of the poets use of language is similes there is one on line 38 “And now, like amorous birds of pray” this is were he is scaring her and trying to hurry her up so he can sleep with her.
The whole poem is a long hyperbole (or extended metaphor) he is always exaggerating things, he does this because it is a man trying to lure a women to bed, so he starts by saying how beautiful she is and flattering her always exaggerating things, then he scares her saying death will take her virginity exaggerating it will all and trying to hurry her again, exaggerating everything, this makes the whole poem a hyperbole.
There is a small amount of alliteration like on line 31, “private place”, but there is not enough to say the poem has defiantly put these in for exaggeration.
One of my favourite parts of the poem is line 10, “Till the conversion of the Jews?” He is saying he will love her until the Jewish religion converts to Christianity; this is exaggerated because Jews will never convert to Christianity so he will live her forever.
“The Beggar-Women”, was also written in the 17th Century by William King. This can be linked to “To His Coy Mistress”, as both have a man trying to seduce a woman and try to get a woman into bed. This is also a long poem with four verses.
At the start of the poem a man hunting meets a “beggar-woman”, he asked her to head away from his hunting company and go into the woods for privacy. That hunting company may still find them. The woman then suggest a place to the left, she familiar with this place and this is not her first time. They then have a long discussion about what to do with the baby, at this point some of the poets’ best use of language is used, for example, “More than the breast, its custom to the back”. This is saying the baby will not like it and cry if it is tied to her front, and she says it can’t go under her or the baby can not be laid to this side because it will cry and if it cry the hunting party will find them. The man then suggest tying the baby to him, this is what she has been wanting him to say, and then part of her plan ties the baby to him and tells him this poem, that before he rushes into having sex with her and maybe her getting pregnant again to see if he can handle having a child for A year or two, to see if he would still rush into having sex with her. This is the message of the poem.
“The Beggar-Woman” uses heroic couplets. These were used in the 17th Century to emphasis some one doing a good deed. It is why it is used in this poem for humour, as it is not as such a good deed he is trying to make her have sex with him. At the very end it is also humorous and witty because she tricks him into having the baby and runs away.
Also in “The Beggar-Woman” there is old-fashioned language, an example of this is “quoth”, this word in modern English means “says”. Some of the syntax is unusual in the poem as the poet sometimes changes the word order to create a rhyme. A good example of this is “Them mounts the infant with a gentle toss upon her generous friend, and, like a cross”. It is just a technique to get “toss” and “cross” to rhyme at the end of each line.
My favourite part of “His Coy Mistress”, is lines 13-16, he is on about gazing at her and praising each part of her body for an amount of time humans could not live for, trying to prove his affection for her.
Out of the two poems I liked “The Beggar-woman” more, because its turns the pot on its head when she ties the baby to the man and runs away, all through the poem it looks as if the man is going to get what he wants but in the end the woman does.
